SPORTS

August 14, 1996

Inaugural junior rodeo draws 50 entries

PECOS, Aug. 14, 1996 - Several local competitors came away winners over the weekend, in the inaugural Reeves County Junior Rodeo, held Friday and Saturday night at the Buck Jackson Rodeo Arena.

The event was sponsored by the West of the Pecos 4-H Saddle Club and attracted about 50 competitors from neighboring counties in Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

The rodeo included barrel races, poles, goat tying and the flag race as part of the speed events, and team roping, tie-down calf roping, breakaway roping and ribbon roping in the roping competition.

The largest number of entries came in the Girls 9-12 Division. Kaci Harrison finished first out of 12 entries in the barrel race, with a 19.103 time, and also won first out of 11 competitors in the poles, with a 21-53 effort. Lauren Lucas won the 9-12 girls goat tying in 12.839 seconds; and Salem Mitchell won the breakaway roping in 6.059 seconds.

In the 13-15 division, Courtney Bowman won the barrel race, in 19.177 seconds; DeAnda Allgood took the poles with a 25.64 time; Brandi Harrison won the goat tying with a 10.693 effort, and Ryan Thomas won the breakaway roping, in 4.502 seconds.

Barrel racing was the only event in the girls 16-18 year old division, and it was won by Renea Rasberry, with a 19.322 time.

Boys and girls competed together in the 8 and under division. Winners there were Blake Bowman in the barrel race (19.3 seconds); and the flag race (11.36 seconds) and Justin Wilson in the pole race (27.859 seconds) and in goat tying (19.307 seconds). The boys and girls also competed in the 13-15 year old team roping, where the only times recorded were by Derek Erskine and Clay Ryan McKinney, who had a 17.79 second effort.

In the boys divisions, among the 9-12 year olds Aurelio Lopez III captured the barrels in 20.858 seconds, the goat tying, in 21.598 seconds; and the poles in 23.961 seconds; while John Marvin Clark captured the breakaway roping with a 4.541 time.

In the 13-15 year old division, McKinney won the tie down roping event with an 18.030 time; while Jeremy Green won the ribbon roping in 11.811 seconds and also took the breakaway roping, with a 3.189 time.

Among 16-18 year olds, David Long won the breakaway roping in 4.381 seconds and the Ribbon Roping in 9.219 seconds, while Joe Bob Hayter took the tie-down roping with a 15.857 second effort.

Ribbon Roping Boys 16-18

Team Roping - Boys & Girls

Resurgence by Rangers widens lead

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Only last week, the Texas Rangers appeared to be sliding toward one of the late-summer fades for which they've become known in Dallas Cowboys country.

Now it looks as though the unprecedented - a Rangers pennant race during football season - might actually be within reach.

Heck, if Texas keeps soaring, and Seattle keeps sliding, there may not even be a pennant race. The Rangers have a 6-game lead over the Mariners in the AL West after Roger Pavlik gave Texas its fourth consecutive quality start, and the Rangers set a club record with their 10th straight errorless game in a 6-2 decision over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday.

Texas has never been so high, so late in a season.

The Rangers, the only AL team never to have made the playoffs, also have never been in first place as many days as they have this summer - 131 as of Wednesday, including 116 in a row.

Texas has done it through pitching and defense, two tenets preached by general manager Doug Melvin and manager Johnny Oates.

Melvin brought together the pieces and Oates has put them together perfectly. Melvin may have added the final link last week when he acquired pitcher John Burkett in a trade with the Florida Marlins.

Burkett pitched a six-hit shutout Sunday in his debut. Ken Hill pitched a five-hitter Monday, giving Texas consecutive shutouts for the first time since Sept. 29-30, 1989.

Things may seem fine and dandy now, but as recently as last week there was fear that the Texas summer was finally getting to the Rangers.

They lost two straight to Detroit, dropping them to 28-31 since June 1. The Mariners crept within 1½ games, and cynics were sure it was the beginning of the end.

Oates feared it, too, so he went ballistic and threw an uncharacteristic locker-room tirade. As happened the last time Oates held a closed-door meeting, Texas responded with a victory.

Still, backup catcher David Valle feared there were still some kinks, so he called another meeting.

``The best baseball meeting I've ever been involved with,'' said leadoff hitter and center fielder Darryl Hamilton. ``Valle was outstanding. He went down the row to each player, each coach, everyone, and asked, `Are you willing to make a commitment to this team for the next seven weeks?'

``(Reliever Dennis Cook) said he was so fired up afterward, he wanted to wear his uniform back to the hotel and sleep in it.''

Valle said he just did what he felt needed to be done.

``There were too many things going in too many different ways,'' he said. ``In essence, we needed to be sure we were united for one purpose, single-minded.

``I can't speak for everyone else, but my mind had been straying toward personal things. I knew it wasn't right. I've been around long enough to know that if I was feeling that way, then others probably were, too.''

Texas followed the consecutive meetings with a sweep of the Blue Jays in Toronto. It was the Rangers' first three-game winning streak since June 7-10 and the first three-game road win streak since May 25-26 and June 3.

The key, though, will be building enough of a buffer over the Mariners so that Seattle doesn't slay Texas when the teams go head-to-head for four games beginning Sept. 16.

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